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Hk TAC13 Żubr Polish / 鹤 Asian Teams | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4828 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 1 of 13 23 December 2012 at 6:58pm | IP Logged |
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This thread follows :
Homogenik TAC 2012 Polish Team Żubr and is related to : TAC 2013 Polish - Team Żubr Polish (polski) So the end of the year and of the 2012 TAC challenge has come, so I thought I would see if my objectives were completed. I wanted the following : - to have completed my current book series (Hurra by Prolog) — I'm currently at book 2 (half) out of 3 books — and thus be officially at level B1. I finished this, but I'm currently doing the exam, which is a practice exam for level B1 including everything an actual certification exam has. It's a disaster. I haven't finished yet but as of now, I think I'll have no more than a 55% rate, which is awful. - to have completed two drill books my teacher bought me in Poland (they're for level B1-C1) I'm not even close to having finished that. - I plan on (maybe) going to Poland next summer to Krakow for a month of intensive study. If I follow my planning, I could be able to reach level B1 there and take the certification exam. But things have considerably slowed down this fall (on account of augmenting difficulty and of overload in work which will continue in the winter so...). I went to Warsaw for a month of intense study, but the program was kind of a let down and I didn't feel like I made any real progress, but I guess I did. The experience was a good way to break the ice with strangers and I spoke no English during my trip, only Polish. It must have helped my listening comprehension (although I still struggle to understand any kind of recorded voice, I don't know why). - to be able watch films without subtitles and understand half of it. Half, yes. - and most of all to be able to communicate verbally with some ease. I'd say that's been kind of accomplished. - I also continued my private polish classes until I left for Poland on my trip. When I came back, I did not follow the classes anymore. It's mostly a question of money. So for the coming year and TAC 2013 polish challenge I would like : - to finish the exercise books Iść czy jechać?, Przygoda z gramatyką and Liczebnik też się liczy. Goals : drill my brain to death, interiorize the grammatical patterns, augment my vocabulary. - to commence and finish the book Apprendre le polonais par les textes, which features text comprehension of excerpts from various genres (articles, essays, novels, scripts, theater...). Goals : to enrich my vocabulary with a high number of expressions and more specific words. - to go through Assimil. Goals : to keep an audio assistance through the year; to add basic vocabulary I could have missed up to now. - to read at least two novels in polish from Polish authors. Goal : gain vocabulary, ameliorate reading comprehension. Mandarin (汉语) As for chinese (I don't have a TAC team for that yet), I plan on continuing properly and not dabble in anymore. I didn't have specific objectives before, in 2012, but I did improve through the year and committed a lot of time to chinese. I: - finished Pimsleur I - completed the first of a series of college mandarin classes (Elementary I) with great success - learned a few hundred characters which I can use and write - met almost weekly with a chinese girl for private lessons (in exchange for English lessons from me) Putting in, maybe, a good deal more time to it in the coming year, I want to : - complete the second college course (Elementary II) in the winter and the third one (Intermediary I) in the fall. Goals : learn around 300 to 350 new characters; improve oral comprehension and speaking. - review Pimsleur I and complete Pimsleur II. Goals : improve my oral comprehension and my speaking. - complete my Basic Chinese books (both listening and writing). Goals : same as above. Edited by Homogenik on 21 January 2013 at 4:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6109 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 2 of 13 23 December 2012 at 8:31pm | IP Logged |
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You're quick off the blocks !
Just posted in your 2012 log; basically 'Very well done and keep it going'. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4373 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 3 of 13 23 December 2012 at 9:45pm | IP Logged |
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It's good that you have some concrete goals, at least much more concrete than mine are. That gives me some idea of where to focus my studies. I don't know how much I'll be able to contribute, but I sure hope that I will be able to give encouragement.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4828 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 4 of 13 10 January 2013 at 5:33pm | IP Logged |
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Actually, Fuenf, I have too many concrete goals, but I don't care if I don't meet them all. The best plan of course,
as with any kind of long term project, is to fix attainable goals. I guess I didn't learn that myself, but I'm still motivated. I might be dramatizing and my goals might be attainable. The thing is, for chinese, my learning material is all for a beginner's level, so I expect (and it is already the case) much of the vocabulary to overlap from my college class, to the Tuttle books, to Pimsleur, and so on. I also bought a desk calendar made by Assimil. Each day has a page you can tear off and features one character to learn (the underside has cultural or grammatical information). That way I can learn one more character a day (though many of them I already know...). As for polish, the more I know... It seems to me to be harder than chinese, but that may only be because I'm still a chinese beginner. Nonetheless, I have read some places that the learning curve for chinese is such that the beginning is very difficult (for tones, characters, writing, pronunciation, etc.), but that after a while it gets much easier as there are no conjugations, no genders, and so on. I doubt that somehow... My chinese teacher even says there is no chinese grammar : that's a blatant lie and in my eyes chinese grammar is very difficult. But still, polish feels harder for me. I haven't yet past the point where I feel apt with the language. Still, I'm happy with the progress I have made. Polish has many difficulties but as with any language it's a question of taking things one step at a time and not contemplate the whole of the language at one time. I'm almost done reading by first all polish book : Anna Prucnal's autobiography, published around 2003. She's an actress and singer I admire very much. She's polish but lives now in France and sings in polish, russian, German, french, English, Italian... Very expressive, dramatic, with a unique voice. It's going well and I feel rather apt at reading, even though I'm not understanding everything and I don't use a dictionary while reading. I got another polish book from the library, Ferdydurke by Gombrowicz, but glancing through it, I think it's too hard for my level. I think I'll wait before I step into this. Maybe later this year. I have been continuing to drill myself into verbs of motion with the book Iść czy jechać? by Józef Pyzik and am now at page 79. It's going well. The book is very informative, simply done and has vocabulary I understand at my level. It is aimed at levels B2/C1. I want to finish it as soon as possible and then move on to Przygoda z gramatyki, another book from the same series published by the excellent Universitas editor. That book is aimed at the same level I think. It's quite longer though and concentrated on declensions. I will finally be getting an internet connection at home next week, so it will make updating this log easier. I might even make contact with polish speakers through Skype and get to speak a little more that way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4828 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 5 of 13 21 January 2013 at 3:45am | IP Logged |
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Polish
I've stopped doing the Iść czy jechać book, bo jest za trudna! I have a problem understanding the intricacies of the utilization of certain verbs, precisely combinations : iść with nieść chodzić with nosić jechać with wieźć jeździć with wozić przyjechać with przywieźć przyjeżdżać with przywozić I totally failed at this one exercise and I don't really understand why. For example : Marysiu, czy ty zawsze, kiedy jedziesz na uniwersytet, ………… ze sobą książki? Well, given the association described above, I thought it would be wieziesz, but it's wozisz. I understand that it is so because of the word zawsze which implies many times, unfinished action. I guess I was just tricked in my head because of the association of jechać and wieźć. I didn't really understand why it couldn't be "kiedy jeździsz na uniwersytet". As I understand it now, when we use a sentence with kiedy and the act of doing something (or going somewhere), the idea of the completed action is more important than the understanding that it's an act, as in this case, that's being repeated many times. So in a sentence like my example, both verb aspects are featured, which striked me as confusing. I'm not sure I understand it right... Another example : Marku, …………… nam czeskiego piwa, jak pojedziesz do Pragi! The answer is przywieź. Although the book, up to this point, gives no explanation regarding the verb pojechać, I assumed it was either powieźć or wieźć. Why przywieźć? I tak dalej... Więc zdecydowałem zacząć inny podręcznik, ten Przygoda z gramatyką, który już zacząłem miesiące temu. Ale zacząłem jeszcze raz od początku. Jest bardzo dużo słownictw w tym zeszycie, szczególnie w jego pierwszym rozdziału. A kilka słów jest bardzo... precyzyjny! Na przykład : bałóg (a kind of a nest) bróg (a rick or stack) dąb (an oak tree) gwóźdź (a nail) głóg (hawthorn) szlachcic (gentlemen) Chinese Oh... I haven't done much. I've been kind of disappointed that I had to withdraw from my class because of scheduling conflicts with another class I need to take. I'm waiting in line for a different group at a different time but I'm not very hopeful that there will be a place for me. That was kind of a bummer. I did start using Memrise again... If I can't go to class anymore for chinese, I suppose it will leave me more time to plow through books I have at home. Among new words I learned are: 蛇 and 蛇年, the first being snake and the second, the year of the snake, which is 2013. One of my favorite discoveries is the word for snowflake ：雪花, which literally means flower of snow. It's a beautiful, poetic way to put it. Edited by Homogenik on 21 January 2013 at 3:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| billyshears66 Groupie United States Joined 4518 days ago 69 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 13 23 January 2013 at 4:09pm | IP Logged |
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Hello fellow teammate. Good luck on your goals for 2013! I look forward to watching your
progress in Mandarin throughout the year. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6109 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 7 of 13 23 January 2013 at 4:36pm | IP Logged |
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I have a copy of 'Iść czy Jechać' which I was looking forward to starting, now I'm not so sure!
Sometimes you just have to admit a temporary defeat and draw encouragement from the things you have got clear. I teach myself 90%+ of the time, but there are times when the only way forward is to find a tutor or a native willing to clarify those blockages. Well done in any case. I hope that the next time you pick up the book, at least things should be easier. Comprehension never seems to be in a nice straight line! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4828 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 8 of 13 24 January 2013 at 3:32am | IP Logged |
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You're right Mooby. It's important not to feel set back by these obstacles. I would recommend starting the book if
you feel up to it as you're quite advanced and might benefit from it. That doesn't mean you'll hit the same obstacles as I do since each has his/her own learning path. I think I mostly gave up for now because of a general feeling of incompetence that day. But I'll get back to it later. Still trying to settle in my new Anki 2. I'm trying mostly to bring my decks down! It feels like I'm trying to put down a fire with a wet tea bag, but I keep at it. I thought I wouldn't be able to continue with my college chinese class but I ended up being included in the class. I found out about it only yesterday afternoon and the class was yesterday evening. I'm glad about that, it should make it more interesting. I'm almost done reading Anna Prucnal's biography in polish (been saying that for a while, but now it's true!). I don't know yet what I'll read next in polish... I have a Sienkiewicz novel which I tried to read before, but it seems kind of tough for me. I'll consider it... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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